AN extra level of scrutiny has been added to look at the decisions made by the body which decides on some of the region’s biggest infra-structure projects.

The Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership is a group of local business people and councillors who decide how best to distribute government money within the region.

Recently it submitted a bid for cash to work on a number of projects, including a tunnel under the M4 as part of the Wichelstowe development, some of which was given.

However, questions have been raised over the accountability of LEPs as the bulk of them are made up by non-elected members, who are dealing with millions of pounds of public money.

Therefore, following advice from the government, two scrutiny committees have been established to look at the decisions made.

One will be made up of the Swindon and Wiltshire Council leaders, deputy leaders and economic growth portfolio holders. The second will consist of non-cabinet councillors with two Conservative and two Labour members attending from Swindon.

The move, which was confirmed at a council meeting last week, has cross-party support but there is no suggestion that the move is a criticism of any decisions taken so far.

Council leader David Renard (Con, Haydon Wick) said: “The Government set up LEPs to help drive economic growth and to replace Regional Development Agencies.

“There have been several questions raised about their democratic accountability and a number of options were put forward by the government to reduce this democratic deficit. We have chosen what we feel is the best model for Swindon and Wiltshire. The committees will be able to look at all the decisions made by the LEP, such as the recent bid process.”

The opposition leader Jim Grant (Lab, Rodbourne Cheney) supports the committees but says the government should have done more to ensure there was democratic accountability in the first place.

He said: “At the moment the Swindon & Wiltshire LEP’s Board is the body due to spend tens of millions of pounds and the vast majority of members on that board are business-people, who are not democratically elected.

“What has been proposed is an overview system where elected councillors in both Swindon and Wiltshire will be able to scrutinise and question decisions made by the Local Enterprise Partnership.

“Business people should of course give advice and be fully consulted but the final decision in my opinion should be in the hands of the elected representatives.

“This isn’t a criticism of those business-people who sit on the LEP or the decisions they have taken so far, but rather a criticism of the government for setting up local bodies whose membership isn’t fully accountable to the residents who live in those areas.”